One dimensional silicon photonic crystals are of great interest for several optical applications, such as in telecommunications and biochemical sensing, for example in measurements of the refractive index of gases and liquids. These crystals (a) are made of alternate layers of air and micro-machined silicon, (b) can be actuated in view of tuning their optical properties and (c) are fabricated by conventional silicon micro-machining processes. Several designs have been proposed but none of them provide a fast and wide tuning range, an easy fabrication process, low losses and a passive fiber alignment [1-4].
For example, tunable silicon optical filters using deformable Bragg gratings or tunable FP cavities have been proposed in Reference [2] and demonstrated in References [1, 6]. Such tunable FP filters can be used for a variety of applications such as optical filtering in telecommunications, biochemical sensing and tunable lasers. Tunable fiber lasers using intracavity fiber FP filters have also been previously reported in Reference [8]. However, none of them provide a fast and wide tuning range, an easy fabrication process, low losses and a passive fiber alignment [1-4].